Articles Posted inAviation Accidents

The media has recently reported on a number of incidents involving passengers who had to be ejected from airplanes after altercations with flight attendants. However, some safety experts fear that these kinds of unruly, and sometimes even violent confrontations between passengers and staff members could possibly be detrimental to the safety of everybody on the airplane.

According to Time magazine, which recently ran a report on the flight safety risks involving such confrontations on planes, flight attendants now complain that they are often forced to ignore severe safety violations like failing to wear seatbelts, improperly placed bags, and other violations in order to avoid confrontations. Many flight attendants fear a confrontation spreading virally on social media via cell phone footage. Such coverage almost always reflects very poorly on the employee, who may be at risk of having his or her employment status changed as a result of the negative publicity the airline suffers after a confrontation broadcast on Facebook.

According flight attendants, since the recent social media footage spread of a passenger being violently evicted from a United Airlines flight bleeding and bruised, they’ve noticed a significant change in passenger attitudes. Passengers are much more likely to question instructions by flight attendants, and are much more abrasive and prone to becoming confrontational when addressed by staff.

On the face of it, it appears that flying is much safer than it used to be. There are statistics to back that up. Over the past few decades, American airlines have managed to fly for years without a single major incident. However, a number of recent fatal accidents show how dangerous it would be for us to become complacent about aviation safety.

The fact is that there are newer risks that are emerging on the horizon, even as the industry battles with older, better-known threats. One of those new threats has to do with the increasing dependence of American carriers on maintenance companies. Many airlines now outsource their maintenance activities to offshore companies, and that has raised the specter of substandard work and ill-maintained aircraft, posing a safety threat.

Another serious issue has to do with the rapidly aging planes in several large fleets. Many carriers continue to maintain older aircraft that may be well past their prime. Older aircraft may not be equipped with safety technology that can possibly divert a safety threat. This is a particularly serious problem among low-budget, so-called discount airlines.

Last week, two planes at Washington’s Reagan National Airport were forced to land without any assistance from air traffic controllers because the controller in charge was asleep. That’s right. The person in charge of guiding jetliners with hundreds of passengers on board safely onto a runway, had dozed off at the controls. This incident is enough for Indiana personal injury attorneys to wonder at the state of aviation safety this country.

The Federal Aviation Administration has taken a stern view of the air traffic controller’s conduct on the job. The agency has begun an investigation into the conduct of the supervisor who apparently fell asleep. The supervisor has been suspended, and drug tests have been conducted. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the supervisor has told them that he was alone and on his fourth consecutive overnight shift when he dozed off.Continue reading

The biggest health concerns about the scanners relate to the amount of radiation that they emit. The problem is that there is very little solid information about the volumes of radiation we are talking about here. That’s because it seems to be only the manufacturers who know how much radiation the scanners are programmed to emit during a typical body scan, and the companies inform us that the amount is very low. That doesn’t really help assure us.Continue reading